Forbes published this year’s list of MENA’s most influential and successful businesswomen and four Lebanese women made it to the list. The ranking is based on several criteria including accomplishments achieved over the last year, designation, overall work experience, CSR and others.

Egypt & the UAE scored the most entries this year with seven each, and the banking and financial services sector was the most dominant with 16 entries.

Here are the Lebanese businesswomen who were ranked among MENA’s 50 most powerful women:

Elissar Farah Antonios (Rank 25)

In December 2020, Elissar became the first woman appointed by Citigroup to run its MENA operations. She oversees 12 countries and 2,100 employees and has led in 2021 the partnership with the U.S. pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020, where the bank is the Official Financial Sponsor.

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Samia Bouazza (Rank 26)

Samia is the founder, CEO & Managing Director of Multiply Group, which was acquired by Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company (IHC) in 2020. After the acquisition, MMC was transformed into the tech-focused holding company, Multiply Group and listed its shares on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) in December 2021.

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Rima Assi (Rank 44)

Rima Assi is a Senior Partner with the Middle East Office of McKinsey & Company and Managing Partner of McKinsey’s Abu Dhabi office. Assi has contributed to supporting female empowerment through quantifying the economic impact of women’s rights reforms.

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Leila Hoteit (Rank 49)

Leila Hoteit works as a Managing Director & Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group. Hoteit was BCG’s only female senior partner in the Middle East in 2021. She was also selected in late 2019 to be on the leadership team of BCG’s social impact practice, which expanded by more than 60% in 2020 and 2021.

For those interested, you can check out the full list [here].